Say Cheese...

 

I was thinking about writing something about André Kertész, the émigré Hungarian photographer and photojournalist who ended up in New York via a stint working in Paris between 1925 and 1936 and in particular his series of Cartes Postales from that period. But I think I'll leave that one for tomorrow's post. Instead, as you can guess from the image above, I'm in food mode. John [cf. my post "Memory = Society" of the 19th inst.] came round for a short lunch with us this afternoon. We had Jane's excellent take on Minestrone, followed by a brief cheese course of the above: three pretty damned decent French soft cheeses; all excellent and all with completely different characters. The one at the top, Epoisses, was one of my late french mate JC's favourites, and has a texture and mildness redolent of clotted cream, despite its up-front pungency on the nose front. Below, the St. Marcellin has a stronger flavour and displays a hint of acidity and chalkiness despite its softness, like a creamed Wensleydale. But the star of the three lies to the right of the picture: the Blue d'Affinois; which is a kind of Franglais for 'ripened blue' cheese, so an appellation that JC would probably have scoffed at. But I tell you something, he would have appreciated this one: a corker of a soft blue you could eat by the spoonful and sod the bread or crackers: it's like the best Greek full-fat yoghurt but blue, if you can picture it: better still buy a chunk from Waitrose and try it for yourself...